minuet at Marie Antoinette’s marriage festivities, 137-140.
Louise of France, Madame, in the Convent of the Carmelites, 104;
her preparation for convent life, 105, 106;
obtains permission to enter the religious state, 107;
letters to, from the King and her sisters, 107-110;
enters convent at Saint Denis, 107, 108;
visited by Madame Campan, 110;
criticisms of, 111;
her life of religious devotion, 112-114;
visited by Marie Antoinette, 133;
takes the habit of the Carmelites, 147, 148.
Louis XV., the court during last years of, 2 _et seq._;
his old age, 9 _et seq._;
a _pater_ dedicated to, 9;
feelings of the people towards, 12, 85, 86;
a type of the ancient _régime_, 12;
his character, 12-14;
his passion for Madame Du Barry, 9;
his victory over Parliament, 12, 13, 25;
his words to Marshal de Richelieu, 20;
his horror of the magistracy, 23;
feelings of the middle classes for, 30;
love during reign of, 45-50;
suffers family bereavements, 79, 80;
his attention to Marie Leczinska in her last illness, 80;
urged to lead a virtuous life, 80;
his apathy and indifference, 81, 82, 88;
his secret intriguing policy, 82-84;
his lack of will, 85;
his personal appearance during later years, 85;
the personification of his epoch, 87;
makes Madame Du Barry his mistress, 94, 95;
closes establishment at Deer Park, 98;
gives Madame Du Barry a house in the city, 99;
grants Madame Louise permission to enter the religious state, 107;
his letters to Madame Louise, 107, 108;
meets Marie Antoinette, 132;
accords Mademoiselle de Lorraine preference in the minuet at Marie
Antoinette’s marriage celebration, 137-140;
his affection for Marie Antoinette, 145;
his reply to Choiseul, 152;
dismisses Choiseul, 155;
at the pavilion of Luciennes, 181-183, 185;
forbodes his death, 188, 189;
his melancholy, 188;
criticised, 189;
taken ill with smallpox at the Little Trianon, 190;
urged to receive extreme unction, 190;
on his deathbed, 192;
receives communion, 192, 193;
dies, 193;
Count de Ségur’s words at death of, 194;
his burial, 195;
public indignities to corpse of, 195, 196;
satirical verses on, 196, 197;
his words concerning his own life, 213.
Love during reign of Louis XV., 45-50;
Chamfort’s definition of, 46;
Buffon’s words concerning, 47-50.
Little Trianon, the, 190.
Luciennes, pavilion of, 181-186, 199, 200, 202.
Luxembourg, Maréchale de, 51;
her position in society, 52-54;
fascinates Rousseau, 53;
her manners and conversation, 53, 54.
MacMahon, Julienne de, 113.
Magistracy of France during last years of Louis XV., 22-28;
horror of Louis XV. for, 23.
Mailly, Countess de, quoted, 211.
Maria Theresa, Empress, 58;
her character, 115, 162, 163;
her instruction of Marie Antoinette, 116;
consults Gassner concerning future of Marie Antoinette, 117;
forms Marie Antoinette after manner of the court of France, 118;
her sorrow at parting with Marie Antoinette, 121;
her _Rule to be Read Every Month_, 125, 126;
urges Marie Antoinette to treat Madame Du Barry deferentially, 157,
160;
her correspondence with Count de Mercy-Argenteau, 162 _et seq._;
her jealous watchfulness, 167, 168;
her exhortations to Marie Antoinette, 168-172;
her tenderness, 170.
Marie Antoinette, 104;
her birth, 115;
her childhood, 116 _et seq._;
loses her father, 117;
her future forecast by Gassner, 117;
trained to the manner of the court of France, 118;
her beauty, 119;
her marriage arranged, 120, 121;
her letter to the Dauphin, 121;
leaves Vienna, 122;
chanson addressed to, 123;
superstitious presentiments concerning, 124;
sees France for the first time, 127;
the symbolical ceremony of delivery of, 128, 129;
arrives at Strasburg, 130;
Prince Louis de Rohan’s address to, 130, 131;
her route to Paris, 131-133;
meets Duke de Choiseul, the Dauphin, and Louis XV., 132;
visits Madame Louise, 133;
arrives at Versailles, 134;
description of, by Bachaumont, 135, 136;
festivities at her marriage, 136-142;
her reception by the French people, 143;
her affection for Louis XV., 145;
her apartment, 145;
her daily life, 145, 146;
witnesses ceremony of the taking of the veil by Madame Louise, 147,
148;
the object of ill-feeling, 149, 150;
her relations to Madame Du Barry, 150 _et seq._;
advised to treat Madame Du Barry deferentially, 157, 160;
her repugnance for Madame Du Barry, 150, 159;
her simple, child-like nature, 164, 165;
surrounded by enemies, 149, 150, 166;
spied upon, 166, 167;
lectured by her mother, Maria Theresa, 168, 169;
her filial devotion, 171;
the idol of the court, 172, 176;
dances in apartments of, 173;
goes to Choisy with the Dauphin, 193;
invited by Madame Du Barry to come to Luciennes, 201, 202;
death of, 207, 208.
Marie Leczinska, 79;
last illness and death, 80, 95.
Maupeou Parliament, see Parliament, Maupeou.
Maximilian, Archduke, serves as proxy for the Dauphin in marriage of
Marie Antoinette, 121.
Mercy-Argenteau, Count de, 157;
urges Marie Antoinette to treat Madame Du Barry deferentially, 158,
159;
his correspondence with Maria Theresa, 162 _et seq._;
his character, 163, 164.
Middle classes in France during last years of Louis XV., 29-33;
their feelings toward Louis XV., 30;
religious sentiment among, 32.
Mirepoix, Maréchale de, 56;
her criticism of Madame Louise, 111.
Montesquieu, his words concerning the ruling classes of France, 24.
Montrable, Marquise de, 181.
Nobility of France during last years of Louis XV., 15-17;
intimacy of, with men of letters, 51.
Ogny, M. d’, 83.
Olbach, Baron d’, 74.
_Pandora_, Laborde’s, 180.
Paris, salons of, see Salons of Paris.
Parliament, victory of Louis XV. over, 12, 13;
the Maupeou, 25, 178, 179.
_Pater_, dedicated to Louis XV., 9.
Penthièvre, Duke de, 173.
People, of France during last years of Louis XV., 34-39;
La Bruyère’s words concerning, 34;
Massillon’s words concerning, 34.
Philosophers, the, during last years of Louis XV., 68-76;
their position in society, 69, 70;
Walpole’s words concerning, 70, 73, 74;
their gravity, 73.
Place Louis XV., catastrophe of, 142, 143.
Poisson, Abel, 187.
Political women, see Women, political.
Pompadour, Madame de, compared with Madame Du Barry, 179, 181, 186,
187;
her unhappiness, 212.
Poniatowski, Stanislas, 58.
Provence, Count de, his character, 144, 191.
Richelieu, Marshal de, 100, 191, 192.
Rohan, Prince Louis de, his address to Marie Antoinette, 130, 131.
Rousseau, his _Nouvelle-Héloise_, 49-51;
fascinated by the Maréchale de Luxembourg, 53;
the Duchess de Choiseul’s criticism of, 54-56.
_Rule to be Read Every Month_, Marie Theresa’s, 125, 126.
Saint-Germain, Count de, 83.
Saint-Priest, M. de, 84.
Salons of Paris, 51 _et seq._
Ségur, Count de, quoted, 86, 87;
his words concerning society during last years of Louis XV., 88;
his words at death of Louis XV., 194.
Society in France during last years of Louis XV., Chateaubriand’s
words concerning, 87;
Count de Ségur’s words concerning, 88.
_Society of the Moment_, The, 48.
Sophie, Madame, 146, 147, 191.
Tarouka, Duke de, his wager with the Empress Maria Theresa, 115.
Trianon, the Little, 190.
Vergennes, M. de, 84.
Vermond, Abbé de, instructor of Marie Antoinette, 120.
Versailles, during last years of Louis XV., 9-11;
after death of Marie Leczinska, 79;
Madame Du Barry’s apartments at, 98;
deserted, 199;
too vast for Louis XV., 181.
Victoire, Madame, 146, 147, 191.
Vintimille, Countess de, quoted, 212.
Voltaire, 51;
his fear of Madame du Deffand, 62, 68;
his show of religious devotion, 71, 72;
his letter to Madame Du Barry, 179, 180.
Walpole, Horace, letters of, quoted, 11, 51, 52, 56, 59, 68;
Madame du Deffand’s affection for, 66;
his words concerning the philosophers, 70, 73, 74;
his words on atheism, 68, 72;
his retirement to Chartreuse, 74;
his words concerning Madame Du Barry, 100, 101.
Women of the court of Louis XV., lessons of their lives, 211-214.
Women, political, in France during last years of Louis XV., 40-44.
Zamora, 183, 184;
a traitor, 204, 205.
[Illustration]
Norwood Press:
J. S. Cushing & Co.—Berwick & Smith.
Boston, Mass., U.S.A.
FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT.
From the French of Imbert de Saint-Amand.
_Each with Portrait, 12mo, $1.25._
_THREE VOLUMES ON MARIE ANTOINETTE._
MARIE ANTOINETTE AND THE END OF THE OLD RÉGIME.
MARIE ANTOINETTE AT THE TUILERIES.
MARIE ANTOINETTE AND THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
_THREE VOLUMES ON THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE._
CITIZENESS BONAPARTE.
THE WIFE OF THE FIRST CONSUL.
THE COURT OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE.
_FOUR VOLUMES ON THE EMPRESS MARIE LOUISE._
THE HAPPY DAYS OF MARIE LOUISE.
MARIE LOUISE AND THE DECADENCE OF THE EMPIRE.
MARIE LOUISE AND THE INVASION OF 1814.
MARIE LOUISE, THE RETURN FROM ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS.
_TWO VOLUMES ON THE DUCHESS OF ANGOULÊME._
THE YOUTH OF THE DUCHESS OF ANGOULÊME.
THE DUCHESS OF ANGOULÊME AND THE TWO RESTORATIONS.
_THREE VOLUMES ON THE DUCHESS OF BERRY._
THE DUCHESS OF BERRY AND THE COURT OF LOUIS XVIII.
THE DUCHESS OF BERRY AND THE COURT OF CHARLES X.
THE DUCHESS OF BERRY AND THE REVOLUTION OF JULY, 1830.
_Four New Volumes._
_WOMEN OF THE VALOIS AND VERSAILLES COURTS._
WOMEN OF THE VALOIS COURT.
THE COURT OF LOUIS XIV.
THE COURT OF LOUIS XV.
THE LAST YEARS OF LOUIS XV.
FAMOUS WOMEN OF THE FRENCH COURT
CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS, PUBLISHERS
Former series of M. Imbert de Saint-Amand’s historical works have
depicted the great French historical epochs of modern times. The
stirring events of the Revolution, of the Consulate and Empire, and of
the Restoration period, ending with the July revolution of 1830 and
the accession of Louis Philippe, are grouped around the attractive
personalities of Marie Antoinette, the Empresses Josephine and Marie
Louise, and the Duchesses of Angoulême and of Berry. The remarkable
and uniform success of these works has induced the publishers to
undertake the translation and publication of a previous series of M. de
Saint-Amand’s volumes which deal with epochs more remote, but not for
that reason less important, interesting, or instructive. The distinction
of the cycle now begun with the “Women of the Valois Court” and ending
with “The Last Years of Louis XV.,” is that, whereas in former series
several volumes have been devoted to the historical events associated
with each of the titular personalities to which they were closely
related, in the present instance a more condensed method is followed.
The color of the present series is more personal, and therefore more
romantic, as is to be expected in the annals of a period during which
the famous women of the French Court were not only more numerous but
more influential than their successors of later times. The dawn of the
modern era, chronicled in M. de Saint-Amand’s “Marie Antoinette and
the End of the Old Régime” was the beginning of the extinction of the
feminine influence that flourished vigorously in affairs of state from
Marguerite of Angoulême to Madame Dubarry. It is the history of this
influence that the author has graphically written in the four volumes now
announced—“Women of the Valois Court,” “The Court of Louis XIV.,” and
“The Court of Louis XV.,” and “The Last Years of Louis XV.”
The first volume is devoted to Marguerite of Angoulême and Catherine
de’ Medici and their contemporaries at the French court during the days
of the last of the Valois—the most romantic period of royalty probably
in all history. The two principal figures are depicted with striking
vividness,—the half Catholic, half Protestant sister of Francis I.,
the grandmother of Henry IV., the author of the famous “Heptameron,”
and one of the most admirable historical figures of any epoch; and the
diplomatic, ambitious, unscrupulous but extremely human Catherine,
universally held responsible for the awful Massacre of Saint Bartholomew.
But the subordinate though scarcely less famous women who adorned the
Valois Court—Diane de Poitiers, the Duchess d’Étampes, Marguerite of
Valois, Marie Stuart, and others—are described with an equally brilliant
and illuminating touch.
The volumes on the women of the great Bourbon epoch, the epoch of Louis
XIV. and Louis XV., when the Bourbon star was in the zenith, contain
a great deal of intimate history as well as setting in relief the
interesting personalities of the famous La Vallière and Montespan and
that perennial historical enigma, Madame de Maintenon, in the volume
devoted to the court of the “Sun King,” and those of Madame de Pompadour,
Madame Dubarry, Queen Marie Leczinska, and other celebrities who made
Versailles what it was during the long and varied reign of Louis XV.
The study of Madame de Maintenon is a real contribution to history,
and the pictures of the clever and dazzling beauties who controlled so
long the destinies not only of France but measurably of Europe itself
from the accession of “le Grand Monarque” to the first threatenings of
the Revolution “deluge” are extremely lifelike and skilfully executed.
The historical chronicle of the time is by no means lost sight of by
the author, but in this series even more than in his works heretofore
published in English he appears not only as an interesting and impartial
historian, but as a brilliant historical portraitist.
FOUR NEW VOLUMES.
WOMEN OF THE VALOIS AND VERSAILLES COURTS.
_Each with Portraits, $1.25. Price per set, in box, cloth, $5.00; half
calf, $10.00._
WOMEN OF THE VALOIS COURT.
THE COURT OF LOUIS XIV.
THE COURT OF LOUIS XV.
THE LAST YEARS OF LOUIS XV.
VOLUMES PREVIOUSLY ISSUED.
_THREE VOLUMES ON MARIE ANTOINETTE._
_Each with Portrait, $1.25. Price per set, in box, cloth, $3.75; half
calf, $7.50._
MARIE ANTOINETTE AND THE END OF THE OLD RÉGIME.
MARIE ANTOINETTE AT THE TUILERIES.
MARIE ANTOINETTE AND THE DOWNFALL OF ROYALTY.
In this series is unfolded the tremendous panorama of political events
in which the unfortunate Queen had so influential a share, beginning
with the days immediately preceding the Revolution, when court life at
Versailles was so gay and unsuspecting, continuing with the enforced
journey of the royal family to Paris, and the agitating months passed
in the Tuileries, and concluding with the abolition of royalty, the
proclamation of the Republic, and the imprisonment of the royal
family,—the initial stage of their progress to the guillotine.
_THREE VOLUMES ON THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE._
_Each with Portrait, $1.25. Price per set, in box, cloth, $3.75; half
calf, $7.50._
CITIZENESS BONAPARTE.
THE WIFE OF THE FIRST CONSUL.
THE COURT OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE.
The romantic and eventful period beginning with Josephine’s marriage,
comprises the astonishing Italian campaign, the Egyptian expedition,
the _coup d’état_ of Brumaire, and is described in the first of the
above volumes; while the second treats of the brilliant society
which issued from the chaos of the Revolution, and over which Madame
Bonaparte presided so charmingly; and the third, of the events between
the assumption of the imperial title by Napoleon and the end of 1807,
including, of course, the Austerlitz campaign.
_FOUR VOLUMES ON THE EMPRESS MARIE LOUISE._
_Each with Portrait, $1.25. Price per set, in box, cloth, $5.00; half
calf, $10.00._
THE HAPPY DAYS OF MARIE LOUISE.
MARIE LOUISE AND THE DECADENCE OF THE EMPIRE.
MARIE LOUISE AND THE INVASION OF 1814.
MARIE LOUISE, THE RETURN FROM ELBA, AND THE HUNDRED DAYS.
The auspicious marriage of the Archduchess Marie Louise to the master
of Europe; the Russian invasion, with its disastrous conclusion a few
years later; the Dresden and Leipsic campaign; the invasion of France by
the Allies, and the marvellous military strategy of Napoleon in 1814,
ending only with his defeat and exile to Elba; his life in his little
principality; his romantic escape and dramatic return to France; the
preparations of the Hundred Days; Waterloo and the definitive restoration
of Louis XVIII. closing the era begun in 1789, with “The End of the
Old Régime,”—are the subjects of the four volumes grouped around the
personality of Marie Louise.
_TWO VOLUMES ON THE DUCHESS OF ANGOULÊME._
_Each with Portrait, $1.25. Price per set, in box, cloth, $2.50; half
calf, $5.00._
THE YOUTH OF THE DUCHESS OF ANGOULÊME.
THE DUCHESS OF ANGOULÊME AND THE TWO RESTORATIONS.
The period covered in this first of these volumes begins with the life
of the daughter of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette imprisoned in the
Temple after the execution of her parents, and ends with the accession
of Louis XVIII. after the abdication of Napoleon at Fontainebleau. The
first Restoration, its illusions, the characters of Louis XVIII., of his
brother, afterwards Charles X., of the Dukes of Angoulême and Berry, sons
of the latter, the life of the Court, the feeling of the city, Napoleon’s
sudden return from Elba, the Hundred Days from the Royalist side, the
second Restoration, and the vengeance taken by the new government on the
Imperialists, form the subject-matter of the second volume.
_THREE VOLUMES ON THE DUCHESS OF BERRY._
_Each with Portrait, $1.25. Price per set, in box, cloth, $3.75; half
calf, $7.50._
THE DUCHESS OF BERRY AND THE COURT OF LOUIS XVIII.
THE DUCHESS OF BERRY AND THE COURT OF CHARLES X.
THE DUCHESS OF BERRY AND THE REVOLUTION OF JULY, 1830.
The Princess Marie Caroline, of Naples, became, upon her marriage with
the Duke of Berry, the central figure of the French Court during the
reigns of both Louis XVIII. and Charles X. The former of these was
rendered eventful by the assassination of her husband and the birth of
her son, the Count of Chambord, and the latter was from the first marked
by those reactionary tendencies which resulted in the dethronement and
exile of the Bourbons. The dramatic Revolution which brought about
the July monarchy of Louis Philippe, has never been more vividly and
intelligently described than in the last volume devoted to the Duchess of
Berry.
“_In these translations of this interesting series of sketches, we have
found an unexpected amount of pleasure and profit. The author cites for
us passages from forgotten diaries, hitherto unearthed letters, extracts
from public proceedings, and the like, and contrives to combine and
arrange his material so as to make a great many very vivid and pleasing
pictures. Nor is this all. The material he lays before us is of real
value, and much, if not most of it, must be unknown save to the special
students of the period. We can, therefore, cordially commend these books
to the attention of our readers. They will find them attractive in their
arrangement, never dull, with much variety of scene and incident, and
admirably translated._”—THE NATION, _of December 19, 1890_.